John Lewis

Lifetime Achievement

Background

Congressman John Lewis was honored with an unprecedented Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement for his extraordinary courage, leadership and commitment to civil rights. Congressman Lewis’ efforts promoting civil rights started at an early age. As a student, he organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, and was later beaten by angry mobs for his participation in the Freedom Rides that challenged segregation at bus terminals across the south. By the age of 23, he was Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a student group for civil rights. Under Lewis’ leadership, the SNCC organized one of the most dramatic nonviolent protests of the Movement. Along with fellow activist Hosea Williams, Lewis led a 600-strong demonstration that exploded into a confrontation when Alabama State Troopers attacked marchers. Known as “Bloody Sunday,” that fateful march and the subsequent march between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a member of the U.S. Congress representing Georgia’s fifth congressional district, John Lewis continues to dedicate his life to protecting human rights.

Acceptance Speech

Caroline Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, President Ford and Mrs. Ford, members of the Selection Committee, Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, family and friends.

I am humbled by this honor and very pleased to be here with you on this special occasion marking the work and life of a courageous and humane man of politics and letters -- President John F. Kennedy.

I feel lucky. I feel more than lucky, I feel truly blessed to receive this award and I feel very blessed to still be here. While you honor me today for a lifetime of achievement, I cannot forget those whose lives were cut short: the three young civil rights workers in Mississippi----Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney and Andy Goodman. President Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy. Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers. So many lives cut short. We must remember them. We are indebted to them.

Just a week ago, I participated in the 40th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides. With 20 men and women who dared to tear down the walls of segregation in 1961, we rode again on a greyhound bus through the Deep South. We retraced our journey from Atlanta to Anniston, Alabama to Birmingham and then to Montgomery.

Forty years ago, I did what I thought was right when I went on the Freedom Rides in 1961. We wanted to test a Supreme Court ruling that banned segregation in an interstate travel facility. When the bus arrived in Rock Hill, South Carolina, I deboarded the bus and approached the white waiting room. We were being watched and someone pointed to the "colored sign." I said: "I have a right to be here on the grounds of the Supreme Court decision in the Boynton case." Seconds later, I was attacked and the blood of another battle in the struggle for civil rights was drawn. I will never, ever forget that moment. I was 21. I was a sharecropper's son from a farm near Troy, Alabama. Yet somehow I learned that where there is injustice, you cannot ignore the call of conscience.

On this very day ----May 21, 1961----exactly forty years ago-- the freedom riders were trapped in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery. The day before, we had been surrounded by a sea of people at the Montgomery Greyhound bus station -- a mob shouting and screaming, men swinging fists, baseball bats, lead pipes -- and others throwing stones -- women swinging heavy purses -- little children clawing with their fingernails at the faces of anyone they could reach.

It was madness. It was unbelievable. We thought we were going to die.

Somewhere in my youth I remember hearing: "Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

That night at First Baptist, exactly forty years ago today, was a long, long night. If we continued the Freedom Ride, we would face arrest or worst. And if we stopped the Rides, freedom would be denied.

An angry mob surrounded the church - throwing stones and firebombs, overturning cars, even pounding on the walls of the sanctuary. While we prayed and sang freedom songs, President Kennedy and the Attorney General desperately negotiated with the Governor of Alabama - fighting for our safety.

It was our sorrow and the nation's sorrow for that night. And for many more nights to come, the American people -- indeed the world -- would witness many more beatings, jailing and even the killing of non-violent protesters daring a better America.

So on May 21, 1961, I remembered:

"Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

By that morning, joy had come to us: President Kennedy made a bold and courageous decision to federalize the Alabama National Guard. He also sent in federal marshals to protect us. We would make it to Jackson Mississippi. But we could not have done so without the help of President Kennedy and his brother, the Attorney General.

Until joy came in the morning after the long dark sorrow of her soul, America could not be America. The joy of morning comes not by our will but by what I call the Spirit of History -- It sweeps us up and commands us to answer hate and fear with love and courage.

Courage is a reflection of the heart -- It is a reflection of something deep within the man or woman or even a child who must resist and must defy an authority that is morally wrong. Courage makes us march on despite fear and doubt on the road toward justice. Courage is not heroic but as necessary as birds need wings to fly. Courage is not rooted in reason but rather Courage comes from a divine purpose to make things right.

Marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, we weren't supposed to make to Montgomery in 1963.

But we did.

Arriving in Montgomery on a Greyhound Bus, we met angry mobs. We were left for dead on the cold pavement.

But we continued our journey.

Seeking to register blacks during Freedom Summer in Mississippi, three young civil rights workers were taken from their jail cell left on a dark country road and murdered in the darkness of night.

But we could not be stopped. Hundreds more students joined us that summer.

In building a new America, we saw a vision then as we do now of the Beloved Community. Consider those two words. "Beloved" means not hateful, not violent, not uncaring, not unkind. And "Community" means not separated, not polarized, not locked in struggle. Beaten and tired but not defeated, our hopes could not be dimmed.

People often ask, how did others and I continue our non-violent protests through the sixties with the likelihood that we would be beaten, imprisoned or even killed. President Kennedy is my best answer to this question. In 1963, he said "The question of race is a moral issue. It is as old as the scripture itself."

When you stand up to injustice. When you refuse to let brute force crush you. When you love the man who spits on you or calls you names or puts a lighted cigarette in your hair. You come to believe that righteousness will always prevail. Just hold on.

We -- and I mean countless thousands and even millions of Americans -- changed old wine into new. We tore down the walls of racial division. We inspired a generation of creative non-violent protest. And we are still building a new America -- a Beloved America, a community at peace with itself in Beloved Boston, Beloved Cincinnati, Beloved Washington, Beloved Atlanta and in every Beloved city, town, village and hamlet in our nation and in the world. Yes, our world can become a Beloved World. A world not divided but united.

I am deeply touched by the honor you have given me today but we cannot forget the unsung heroes who cared deeply, sacrificed much and fought hard for a better America. For the brave men and women who stood in unmovable lines because they were determined to vote. For those who expressed themselves by sitting down in Montgomery, in Nashville, in Birmingham and throughout the south, they were fighting for a just and open society. For the black and white freedom riders who rode a bus, faced angry mobs, survived a burning bus and slept for days on the cold floor of a jail cell, they too must be looked upon as the founding mothers and fathers of a new America.

As we begin a new century, we must move our feet, our hands, our hearts, our resources to build and not to tear down, to reconcile and not to divide, to love and not to hate, to heal and not to kill. I hope and pray that we continue our daring drive to work toward the Beloved Community. It is still within our reach. Keep your eyes on the Prize.

Acceptance speech delivered by Congressman John Lewis, recipient of the Profile in Courage Lifetime Achievement Award, May 21, 2001.

Remarks by Senator Edward M. Kennedy

I'm honored to be here today with President Gerald R. Ford, the winner of this year’s Profile in Courage Award, and Congressman John Lewis, the recipient of the Profile in Courage Lifetime Achievement Award.

Today we honor two outstanding leaders who withstood the heat of controversy and persevered in their beliefs about what was in our country’s best interests. History has proved them right.

This is the 12th year of this annual award, and I am proud that it has become so recognized as symbol of noble public service. It was inspired by the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by President Kennedy, and it was instituted to celebrate his life and his belief that political courage must be valued and honored.

We hope that the Profile in Courage awards will encourage young men and women to enter public service -- and that it will inspire political leaders at the local, state, and national level to dare to take on even the most difficult issues, and demonstrate their own devotion to high principle.

In his book, President Kennedy told the stories of courageous political leaders who faced crucial decisions and made them under great pressure, and often at great risk to their own careers. I believe my brother would be especially pleased with our winners this year. He would feel that their stories of courage would have made outstanding new chapters in his book.

At a time of national turmoil, America was fortunate that it was Gerald Ford who took the helm of the storm-tossed ship of state. Unlike many of us at the time, President Ford recognized that the nation had to move forward, and could not do so if there was a continuing effort to prosecute former President Nixon. So President Ford made a courageous decision, one that historians now say cost him his office, and he pardoned Richard Nixon.

I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us. He eminently deserves this award, and we are proud of his achievement.

Our other winner this year, John Lewis, is a legend for his courageous leadership over so many years in the civil rights movement. For a generation, he has asked America to be all it could be. Despite more than 40 arrests and countless vicious beatings, John Lewis never stopped believing in the ideals of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He organized his fellow citizens and helped them to obtain their most fundamental right in a democracy -- the right to vote -- and he has continued to fight for civil rights ever since.

He rose from poverty to become a member of the United States Congress, where he continues to lead the battle against injustice wherever he finds it. In John Lewis, we are humbled to see a person of towering physical and moral courage – a man who has accomplished what so many others would fear to try. He is indeed a worthy recipient of the Profile in Courage Lifetime Achievement Award.

It is now my privilege to introduce President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline. She will read the Profile in Courage Citations for our honorees and present their awards. Caroline is the graceful force behind these annual awards, and she is a joy to all of us who know and love her. Every day, she reflects the spirit and ideals of her parents, and makes us proud of all of her accomplishments. We thank her for her wonderful leadership here at the Library -- Caroline Kennedy.

Remarks delivered by Senator Edward M. Kennedy on presenting the 2001 Profile in Courage Award to President Gerald R. Ford and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Congressman John Lewis, May 21, 2001.